Goldeneye 007
Image: Nintendo

If you were around in the late 1990s and happily poured many hours into GoldenEye 007, then you have probably come across the 'Four Bonds' hoax. This was a theory which stated that it was possible to unlock the face textures for previous Bond actors Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton in the game's multiplayer mode after completing a series of near-impossible tasks.

This was, of course, not true (regardless of what Nintendo-working uncles might tell you); although the face textures of these past Bonds did exist in the game's ROM in some rudimentary form after initial plans to add the actors were scrapped thanks to some pesky legal worries. While the other Bond models were removed completely, the face textures were instead moved to the 'unused pile' rather than risk deleting anything else from the game's build so close to release.

Or at least, that's where they were. The version of the game that we now have on the NSO N64 Library has done away with these textures, so it seems, finally putting the chance of playing with the classic Bonds to bed. As confirmed on Twitter by @LuigiBlood, the only noticeable difference between this version's ROM and those to have come before it is the removal of the unused Bond textures:

Interestingly, although these Bond faces have now been removed for good, it looks like there are still a couple of unused textures that made it into the Switch Online version of the game. As @Graslu00 pointed out, the ROM still contains the photos for the four Bond case files and some Mickey Mouse graffiti — neither of which made it into the original game but, much like the face textures, could be found by having a good old dig around in the ROM.

It is slightly strange that the old actor textures would be removed in this instance, while other unused ones still hang around to this day. We suppose that it sidesteps any criticism of 'come on Nintendo, the textures were right there! Why not just put them in??' because they're not right there anymore.

Do you wish that these unused textures would see the light of day? Shoot your thoughts in the comments!

[source twitter.com]